Dion Bisara – The government plans to increase the amount of relief funds next year to repair broken dams in Sidoarjo, East Java, to control a mudflow caused by the rupture of a gas drill, according to a draft of the 2012 state budget.
The mudflow mitigation funds will rise by 3.5 percent to Rp 1.33 trillion ($155.6 million) next year from an estimated Rp 1.29 trillion this year. The fund will be managed by the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS).
The draft budget drawn up is expected to help create 48 million cubic meters of mud drainage to the Porong River and aid construction of dams in three villages near the mudflow.
Around 98 percent, or Rp 1.304 trillion, of the funds will be used for construction. Rp 26.7 billion will go toward management and technical development of the BPLS.
The mudflow has destroyed hundreds of homes, swamped 720 hectares of land and displaced thousands of people since it began erupting in mid 2006.
Lapindo, which drilled the gas well, is partly owned by Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who was the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare five years ago. Lapindo's management and the government blamed the disaster on an earthquake that struck days before the mudflow.
The site gushes around 10,000 to 15,000 cubic meters of mud per day, Sofyan Hadi Djojopranoto, the deputy of operations at BPLS, said in May. The rate is a tenth of the 150,000 cubic meters per day it gushed in the first few weeks after the mudflow started.
Zainul Lutfi, the chairman of a special committee on the Sidoardjo mudflow, said on Aug. 26 that the relief fund was barely enough to cover its responsibilities from the mudflow.
"This shows that the central government is not serious about mitigating the impact of the Sidoardjo mudflow. They are only focusing on the construction at the site, but not the social impact," Zainul said.
He said another Rp 4.1 trillion was needed to provide compensation, especially for 45 neighborhood units that have received no aid since the agency was formed in 2006.
Funding for BPLS has risen sharply, but the agency has struggled to control the mudflow and provide compensation to the residents of the affected area.
The increase in the BPLS budget next year coincides with budget reductions of 10 percent for aid for other natural disasters.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency's (BPNS) budget suffered the biggest cut. Its budget was slashed 29 percent, decreasing from Rp 938.9 billion to Rp 670 billion this year.
The budget for the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basernas) was cut 27 percent from Rp 1.33 trillion to Rp 971.7 billion.
Meanwhile, the government has maintained its disaster standby fund, which is used for emergency disaster response, at Rp 4 trillion.